Painter Syed Haider Raza Returned to India after Six Decades

Distinguished painter Syed Haider Raza moved back to India after spending nearly six decades (60 years) in France. Raza who landed on the Indian soil after 60 years on 29 December 2010 is from a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. Raza had shifted to France in October 1950 to study at the Icole Nationale Supirieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris on a government of France scholarship and settled in Paris following his marriage to French artist Janine Mongillat in 1959.

He made his first public appearance after his return for artist Teji Grover’s exhibition at Arpana Fine Arts Gallery in New Delhi on 3 January 2011. On 10 June 2010, Raza’s seminal work, Saurashtra was sold for a staggering Rs 16.42 crore ($3,486,965) at a Christie’s auction.

Another Indian painter of international repute, M.F Hussain took up Qatar citizenship in the recent past.